By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

A POLICE officer shot and killed a nursing dog during a foot chase on Saturday morning, sparking outrage from residents who accuse the officer of cursing at bystanders and say the animal didn’t attack.

The yard the officer entered belonged to an uninvolved family with no apparent ties to the man officers were chasing.

Police said officers were conducting a routine stop-and-search on Key West Street when a suspect fled on foot and ran into a nearby yard. There, an officer encountered the dog and reportedly fired her weapon in self-defence after being attacked. She was allegedly treated at the hospital.

However, neighbours allege the dog, described as a potcake and not a pit bull, merely barked in response to the commotion and did not attack. They say the shooting occurred in the presence of small children and near a litter of the dog’s puppies, some of which were seen attempting to nurse from their dead mother’s body.

“This was not a pit bull,” one resident said. “It was a potcake. You go in somebody yard, of course the dog will bark. That is normal.”

Neighbours said the dog had recently given birth and was typically leashed in the yard.

Residents accused the officer of using abusive language after the shooting. One neighbour said: “When I told her there were children in the yard, she started cursing me. That is bad. I do not appreciate that, especially from someone in uniform.”

Questions also surround the police’s version of the chase. While officials claim the pursuit stemmed from a stop-and-search involving a group of men, several residents say officers initially stopped a woman driving a vehicle before shifting focus to a man who had not been involved.

“They was doing stuff with somebody else,” one witness said. “They see somebody they recognised then chased him down.”